job hunt/tuberculosis/cheesecake

I never knew how hard it could be to get a job. I know that the economy sucks, that it's the slow season here, that most places are still overstaffed from the summer, but Jesus Christ, I have a damn MBA and I'm applying for jobs as a line cook, busser, or host. I know... you might say that that is the problem... that I'm over qualified for those jobs, but I'm under qualified to jump directly into a management position in a high volume restaurant.

After two weeks of button up shirts and khakis, craigslist, monster.com, and unsolicited walk-ins, I finally managed trudge through all of the lip-service interviews and into a place that appreciated my talents and understood my goals: The Cheesecake Factory. I had waited a while to apply there even though they are "always hiring great applicants" due to the fact that my cousin works there. I got the job (busser) at my second interview, have now completed my training and am an official Certified Cheesecake Factory Busser. Now to begin my unrelenting quest to be the best, to get to the top, and to learn as much as possible from the insanely large machine...

Oh yeah. TB. Hawaii has twice the number of tuberculosis cases (8.5/100,000) as the rest of the U.S. and as such, they require TB testing for all students, restaurant workers, and caregivers.) They put a little bit of liquid under the skin of your arm and then two days later you come back. If your arm has a dime sized discoloration/reaction in the spot where they injected you, you have TB. I do not. I imagined that I did -- that I would wake up in the morning and see the splotch and have to get lung x-rays and treatments and not be able to work for months and how amazed everyone would be that I had consumption. I could become a public speaker, telling people how important TB prevention and treatment were, while quietly coughing blood into my handkerchief for dramatic effect. But I do not in fact have TB.